New York Daily News and EMI Music Offer
Free Exclusive Music Downloads to Readers

Maybe not a big deal to file-traders, but in the world of major labels, it’s significant.  Instead of saying no, instead of locking the music up, suddenly EMI is looking for a way to give back, to engage consumers in music, to hook them, TO GROW THEIR BUSINESS!

If this is evidence of the changes Guy Hands has wrought and is wringing, I greatly approve.

Instead of saying Prince giving away his CD with the newspaper is killing the industry, EMI is now seeing the wisdom in new marketing ideas.

It’s a start.

And it’s one I appreciate a lot more than all the demonizing being done in Cannes this week.

Newbies and outsiders are going to inherit the music world.  If you’re not willing to say the old ways are outmoded, you’re not looking for a place in the future infrastructure.

We need percentage publishing royalties in the U.S.  We need far easier made deals.  If people want to use music, we need to say yes rather than no.  Or we’re not going to get paid in the future.

The first mistake was denying Napster a license.  That revenue will never be recaptured.  Make the deal now, get the revenue now.  No one knows exactly where it’s all going, if you’re waiting for the ground to solidify, you’re so far behind the curve as to be irrelevant.